Android already leads the market, accounting for approximately 60 percent of all smartphone shipments in the first half of 2012, according to an article on PCMag.com. But even with the forthcoming launch of the next-generation iPhone, Android market share is expected to grow to 70 percent of the global market in the second half of the year, Digitimes Research senior analyst Luke Lin estimated.

Contributing to its growth, several major Android handset vendors like Samsung, Huawei, and ZTE are starting to increase shipments, while second-tier and regional vendors are “aggressively” launching new entry-level Android handsets in China, Lin said.

See Every Hurricane of the Last 150 years on One Map

With hurricane season upon us, one mapmaker offered up an informative and visually impressive look at hurricanes that have struck over the last century and a half.

If it looks a little odd at first, it’s because this hurricane map offers a unique perspective of the Earth; Antarctica is smack in the middle, and the rest of the planet unfurls around it like the petals of a tulip, according to an article on msnbc.com.

The effect is not only informative — more than 150 years of hurricane data show that certain regions are consistently in the storms’ crosshairs — but also visually arresting.

Mapmaker John Nelson, the user experience and mapping manager for IDV Solutions, a data visualization company, said that this oddball point of view was the best way to tell the story of the data.

“When I put it onto a rectangular map it was neat looking, but a little bit disappointing,” Nelson told OurAmazingPlanet. But the unorthodox, bottom-up perspective allowed the curving paths the storms make across the world’s oceans to shine, he said.

Sick on the Road? Try the Grocery Store

If you’re planning one more trip before the end of summer, it might be a smart idea to familiarize yourself with some ways to cope with ailments while in a foreign land.

“You don’t need to pack a medicine chest on holiday,” said Dave Harcombe, a pharmacist in Doncaster, England. “I rely on traditional medicine to pay my mortgage,” he added. “But in certain cases, home remedies are as good as drugs. There’s a place in the world for both of them.”

Harcombe used his travel experience and that of his customers to create a list of items that he posted on silvertraveladvisor.com. Debbie Marshall, editor of the site, said the response has been enthusiastic. “It is well worth knowing some of the healing properties of common foods when traveling,” she said, noting that acquiring and using conventional medicines in certain countries can be complicated. “Pharmaceutical labels may be written in an unfamiliar language, quantities can be ambiguous and quite often nature has a remedy that will bridge the gap until more conventional aid can be found.”

Some of these over-the-counter remedies help combat upset stomachs, bug bites, poison ivy and what to do when you’re having trouble with your contact lenses.

Super Mario Bros. ‘Demake’ Boasts Atari 2600 Graphics

Call it an artistic step forward while relying on graphics from the early ’80s.

An old-school style is making a comeback, and “demakes” are apparently all the rage.

“Demakes” adapt modern games to the standards of older platforms, sometimes even programming them for dead hardware, such as the Atari system.

If you thought Super Mario Bros. looked bad on the Nintendo Entertainment System, wait until you see what it would have looked like on the Atari 2600. In its current demo form, the graphics are fairly decent for an Atari 2600 game, although Sprybug admits there are some problems with collision detection.